Or how I learned that the end of the world as we know it, isn't always a bad thing

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Ethica Input

New Ethica Project on AbandonmentsFri Feb 1, 2008 1:58 pm (PST)

Fellow APVers and members of the Vietnam Adoption Community,

I have been following the recent discussion on abandonments from Viet Nam with great interest. During my recent trip, I met with U.S. Embassy staff who revealed a shocking piece of information on which Ethica feels compelled to act. Currently 85% of the adoptions being processed are for abandoned children! The Embassy is very concerned about this, and believes that many "abandonments" are being staged to avoid investigation into the backgrounds of children. There are, of course, other possible reasons and we believe it should be determined what those reasons are. But one thing is clear. There is no societal reason for Vietnamese adoptions to become more closed over the course of the last few years. Indeed, statistics that we've been able to gather thus far point to a disturbing shift from pre-closure statistics to the current ones.

There are two results of this trend: The first is that children are being deprived of their identifying information. The second is that this practice could seriously damage the continuation of adoptions from Vietnam. US government offices have a duty to determine the background of children and their orphan status. When a sudden shift in practices occurs which makes that difficult, suspicions rise and warning signs cannot be ignored.

Ethica is working to address this problem, with the goal of protecting the identities of the children and preserving adoption as an option for the orphans of Vietnam. To that end, we are launching a new project called "Operation Identity". Please visit our website for more details on the problem and our new initiative. More information will be provided soon about how you can help.